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It's human nature to have personal perceptions about people, places and things. A lot of our experience is anecdotal or just based off of things we've heard from others. I know I definitely have my own (often times ignorant and wrong) perception about places I've never been or lived. What are some things about your home state that people may be surprised about or unaware of.
I'll start. I'm a lifelong born and raised Californian. There's no shortage of public opinion about CA...often times from people who aren't even from here.
Liberal/Left Leaning- Mostly true, but still a lot more moderate than FOX news portrays. I live in the supposedly ultra-liberal SF Bay Area and I personally happen to know quite a few people who are registered Republicans and voted for Trump...I know, shocking Most of the people I know are very moderate or are indifferent in their political views. Once you get out of the Bay Area or LA, there are actually quite a few conservative leaning areas throughout the state.
Size- California is a huge state. It covers a huge amount of land. It has more people than the entire country of Canada. San Francisco and LA aren't a couple hours' drive apart from each other. On average, it takes about six hours to drive between the two cities.
Overcrowding/Traffic- In the major metro areas, yes. Those areas are also where the most of the jobs are, so obviously that's where people tend to move to. The reality is, most of CA is still rural and undeveloped. There are lots of "out in the middle of nowhere" places throughout the state with very small populations and little traffic.
The People- There are over 40 million people here. Any stereotypes about Californians will be both true and not true. We have every type of person here.
Cost of Living- Again, in the major metro areas, yes. There are still affordable places throughout the state, but you may not find employment there. On a side note, us native Californians are just as irritated about people coming in and driving up our home prices as people from other states are that Californians drive up theirs. We not only contend with people from out of state buying up our homes, but cash buyers from outside the country!
Weather- It's not mild and sunny everywhere all the time. It rains and it snows in many parts of the state. The Sierra Nevada mountains actually get lots of snow. Where I live in the SF Bay Area, it can at times in the summer be foggy and 50 degrees by the coast and 90 degrees and sunny inland. So while CA may generally not have the extreme weather that many other parts of the country experience, it's not sunny and mild year round everywhere.
These are just some of the stereotypes I think people tend to place on CA. What about your state?
Frequent earthquakes- Earthquakes large enough to do any damage are rare and localized. The chances that a given individual in California will be affected by a large earthquake in any given year are minuscule. In my 50 years in California, I've experienced one earthquake that did mild damage to my belongings (almost none to my house) and a number of minor tremors that didn't even knock a painting askew. I'm about 150 miles from Ridgecrest, where there were two earthquakes earlier this year. I didn't feel either one.
Widespread wildfires- Okay, wildfires are a threat, especially for a few weeks in the fall (right now). People do lose their homes in fires, but most people don't live in fire zones. No matter what you hear on the news, "all of California" is not on fire. Where I live, in Orange County, we haven't had so much as a whiff of smoke from a wildfire this year.
Transplants- No, not everyone in California came from somewhere else. We do have a lot of immigrants from foreign countries, and from other states, but I'm a native, and so is the OP, and so are 64% of American-born people living in California today.
Desert- Los Angeles is a desert, right? Even a lot of natives assume this to be the case, but they are wrong. Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate with an average of 15 inches of rain annually--150% of the cutoff to be classified as a desert. There are huge desert areas in California, but they aren't in Los Angeles.
It's human nature to have personal perceptions about people, places and things. A lot of our experience is anecdotal or just based off of things we've heard from others. I know I definitely have my own (often times ignorant and wrong) perception about places I've never been or lived. What are some things about your home state that people may be surprised about or unaware of.
I'll start. I'm a lifelong born and raised Californian. There's no shortage of public opinion about CA...often times from people who aren't even from here.
Liberal/Left Leaning- Mostly true, but still a lot more moderate than FOX news portrays. I live in the supposedly ultra-liberal SF Bay Area and I personally happen to know quite a few people who are registered Republicans and voted for Trump...I know, shocking Most of the people I know are very moderate or are indifferent in their political views. Once you get out of the Bay Area or LA, there are actually quite a few conservative leaning areas throughout the state.
Size- California is a huge state. It covers a huge amount of land. It has more people than the entire country of Canada. San Francisco and LA aren't a couple hours' drive apart from each other. On average, it takes about six hours to drive between the two cities.
Overcrowding/Traffic- In the major metro areas, yes. Those areas are also where the most of the jobs are, so obviously that's where people tend to move to. The reality is, most of CA is still rural and undeveloped. There are lots of "out in the middle of nowhere" places throughout the state with very small populations and little traffic.
The People- There are over 40 million people here. Any stereotypes about Californians will be both true and not true. We have every type of person here.
Cost of Living- Again, in the major metro areas, yes. There are still affordable places throughout the state, but you may not find employment there. On a side note, us native Californians are just as irritated about people coming in and driving up our home prices as people from other states are that Californians drive up theirs. We not only contend with people from out of state buying up our homes, but cash buyers from outside the country!
Weather- It's not mild and sunny everywhere all the time. It rains and it snows in many parts of the state. The Sierra Nevada mountains actually get lots of snow. Where I live in the SF Bay Area, it can at times in the summer be foggy and 50 degrees by the coast and 90 degrees and sunny inland. So while CA may generally not have the extreme weather that many other parts of the country experience, it's not sunny and mild year round everywhere.
These are just some of the stereotypes I think people tend to place on CA. What about your state?
Hello OP...this is a great thread topic.I will go next. I live in Texas.Some people think the whole state is desert with saquaros.That is wrong.That kind of cactus is not found in Texas naturally. A lot of people think we all own guns.Some of us do.People think all of our us are conservatives but the big cities in Texas tend to be liberal.
Texas is more moderate and less conservative than the popular stereotype.A lot of people think we are all Christians.Well, I am a Christian but there's lot of different religions here. Some people think we all own ranches.I dont.A lot of people think we are all oilmen with oil wells.Well, I am but most Texans aint.The desert is only about a tenth of the land area of Texas and we have great diversity in terrain.Its far from being all desert.
All the general stereotypes of Washington are really referring to western Washington. East of the Cascades, it's fairly dry and arid, conservative, more blue skies, not as many evergreens, not particularly technologically "forward", not known for fake-friendliness, no real international presence besides Mexican migrant workers.
I think Illinois' stereotypes are broadly accurate and people recognize that most of the state is nothing like Chicago.
I don’t know if some of those are stereotypes or just misconceptions. And I don’t know what size is doing there, since I don’t think it’s either for California.
At any rate, I don’t know what a typical North Carolina stereotype is. Is Mayberryism still a stereotype? I guess that’s untrue in the urban/suburban areas, but still partly true in the rural areas. McDonald’s has just replaced Floyd’s Barbershop. We do enjoy college sports and can bicker endlessly (or simply shut off communication with family/friends during rivalry week). In honor of the transplants picking a local college (invariably it’s Duke), we take them to Penguins-Hurricanes game as part of the cultural exchange program. We like barbecue, but we are snobs about what is good. Oh, and one misconception is all the Carolinas are the same, but that is a lie spread by someone South of the Border I imagine.
Frequent earthquakes- Earthquakes large enough to do any damage are rare and localized. The chances that a given individual in California will be affected by a large earthquake in any given year are minuscule. In my 50 years in California, I've experienced one earthquake that did mild damage to my belongings (almost none to my house) and a number of minor tremors that didn't even knock a painting askew. I'm about 150 miles from Ridgecrest, where there were two earthquakes earlier this year. I didn't feel either one.
Widespread wildfires- Okay, wildfires are a threat, especially for a few weeks in the fall (right now). People do lose their homes in fires, but most people don't live in fire zones. No matter what you hear on the news, "all of California" is not on fire. Where I live, in Orange County, we haven't had so much as a whiff of smoke from a wildfire this year.
Transplants- No, not everyone in California came from somewhere else. We do have a lot of immigrants from foreign countries, and from other states, but I'm a native, and so is the OP, and so are 64% of American-born people living in California today.
Desert- Los Angeles is a desert, right? Even a lot of natives assume this to be the case, but they are wrong. Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate with an average of 15 inches of rain annually--150% of the cutoff to be classified as a desert. There are huge desert areas in California, but they aren't in Los Angeles.
Those are good ones too!
Frequent earthquakes- In my almost 40 years here, I've only experienced one major earthquake- the Loma Prieta quake of '89. It was a big deal and did cause a lot of damage in certain places. The extent of impact where I lived with my parents was no electricity for a couple days. Then life went on as normal. Earthquakes can be potentially damaging and even deadly. They're still infrequent enough though that even when us native Californians experience them, we're all talking about it because it's not something we experience on a regular basis. We don't have such a thing as earthquake season like other states have hurricane season.
Widespread wildfires- The fires can be very serious too but they tend to be in areas that are known to be prone to fires. People living in fire prone areas typically know they're living in fire prone areas and have assessed the risk and chose to live where they are. A few weeks in October tend to be when the worst fires happen. By next month we'll be getting into the rainy season again and it won't be a risk...until next year.
Transplants- All of the people in my circle of family and friends that still live here are CA natives. I live in an area that has many transplants though, both from within the U.S. and outside. Silicon Valley attracts a lot of immigrants from India and China. The Bay Area in general has a lot of non-native residents but I don't know what the exact numbers are.
Desert- I'm not sure if there is any other stated that has the topography/climate/etc. that CA has. Desert is just one part of it and doesn't come close to covering the majority of the state. LA definitely isn't desert.
Snow - MN gets 42 inches/yr, but that's less than the Northeast and places like Ohio. It's actually too cold to get large moisture snowfalls. But once it falls, it does stay around
Coat of living - it's decently expensive for the Midwest, although salaries justify it. Lots of regulation has disproportionately increased the cost of new construction
It's colder than the rest of the US year round - because it's borderline prairie, summers can get hot! Once again, hotter than the Northeast.
All the general stereotypes of Washington are really referring to western Washington. East of the Cascades, it's fairly dry and arid, conservative, more blue skies, not as many evergreens, not particularly technologically "forward", not known for fake-friendliness, no real international presence besides Mexican migrant workers.
I think Illinois' stereotypes are broadly accurate and people recognize that most of the state is nothing like Chicago.
Really about eastern Washington NOT “not particularly technologically forward”????!!!!
Oh, so that fiber to my house at the turn of century was “not particularly technologically forward”??
The largest science educated workforce in Tri-Cities is “not particularly technologically forward”??
Wait....the local radio station has THREE CALL LETTERS......sounds like they were “not particularly technogically forward” in the 1920’s.
Wait....in the 1980’s I could connect to my local library with my PC and go through the card catalog and order books which were then mailed to me.......”oh, probably not particularly technogically forward”!!!
My daughter did miss the “not particularly technologically forward” internet when she went to the University of Washington. Came home to download the large files she needed for school.
No real international presence.....Uh, have you checked the reach of eastern Washington fruit industry on the planet???
On a serious note....I am amazed how provincial western Washington residents remain, and outside of a few companies have no clue about the rest of the world.....let alone the rest of their state.
But there more.....Conservative???
I get my electricity, water, sewer from the county.....Oh wait, I also get my telephone, cable TV, and internet from my county government.
Does that sound Conservative to you??
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Most of the people I know are very moderate or are indifferent in their political views. Once you get out of the Bay Area or LA, there are actually quite a few conservative leaning areas throughout the state. 
